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affront

UK/əˈfɹʌnt/US/əˈfrənt/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,025 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: affronts

An affront is an open insult to somebody's dignity. Take it as an affront, an affront to decency, deeply affronted.

It is public by definition, which is what separates it from a private slight, and it is used most about dignity, taste and justice rather than about personal feelings. The Latin behind it means to strike in the face.

Paul Delaroche · Public domain

Definitions of affront

  1. 1nounaffrontAn open insult to somebody's dignity.C1

    “He took her refusal to shake his hand as a personal affront.”

affront is an insult.

Where it comes from

Old French afronter meant to strike in the face, from Latin ad, to, plus frons, the forehead.

  1. Latin

    ad — to

  2. Vulgar Latin

    *affrontare — to hit in the face

  3. Old French

    afronter — to hit in the face; to defy

  4. Middle English

    afrounten

  5. English, today

    affront

Built from

  • frōns · Latin — forehead

From Middle English afrounten, from Old French afronter (“to hit in the face; to defy”), from Vulgar Latin affrontare (“to hit in the face”), from Latin ad (“to”) + frōns (“forehead”) (English front). by surface analysis, af- + front.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

affront in the wild

  • Du Bois regarded it as an "affront to the hospitality of black folks".

    Nigger Heaven

  • Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was a French anti-art painter, writer, poet, musician, playwright closely associated with the intended affront to aesthetic sensibilities that was the Dada movement.

    Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes

  • Although their conversion was an occasion of great joy for them, one son of the family considered this a great affront.

    Euthalia of Sicily

  • The representative of Ghana, which introduced the resolution, said the continued attacks were an affront to the council's authority.

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 602

  • In November 2006 Sagir Muhammed described the impeachment of Plateau State Governor Chibi Joshua Dariye as an affront.

    Arewa People's Congress

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the frōns family

front

affront — used about once every 5,661 pages · #10,025 · point at the bar for the others

  • frontal
  • forefront